Sync for Lemmy

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Alternative payment system to skip 30% google tax? (self.syncforlemmy)

submitted 2 years ago by NENathaniel to c/[email protected]

15 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Is this an option that exists or could be added in the future?

30% off would make the pricing feel less steep

all 17 comments

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 years ago (1 children)

My company tried transitioning app subscriptions to alternatives outside the app stores and it was not worth it. Credit card fraud was a massive issue. It got so bad the payment networks (Visa, MasterCard) threatened to ban us from their networks.

Google and Apple aren't totally rent seeking.

[–] NENathaniel 7 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Interesting, thanks for the insight

30% def too high tho haha

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Honestly not really when compared to the alternative. Our net payout through alternatives was closer to 60%. We experienced a bot attack one month where we actually lost money due to generating massive transaction fees on bogus chargebacks.

I thought Google shifted to a flat 15% anyway (especially for small app developers). It's really a no brainer for app developers then.

[–] NENathaniel 7 points 2 years ago

Def forgot they switched to 15% for the first million. That's very reasonable

[+] [email protected] 7 points 2 years ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

[deleted]

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 years ago (2 children)

On Android Google only takes their cut if you use their payment system. If an app developer wants to make their own payment system, they're allowed. Then they don't have to pay Google for in-app purchasing. Of course making their own, is far more complicated than simply dropping in Google's.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

That is a pretty recent policy, from the last year or two, it's available in a limited number of countries, and it's a pilot you need to manually apply for. And you still need to pay the fee to Google, it's only reduced by 4%, so instead of 30 it's 26 / instead of 15 it's 11.

More info: Google Play Help Center: Enrolling in the user choice billing pilot

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 years ago (1 children)

They can do that, yes, but they would have to distribute it somewhere other than the Google store. This introduces a lot of extra work replacing the license management and accepting payment and possibly other benefits that I don’t know about.

[–] Anon819450514 6 points 2 years ago (2 children)

How would you download updates? Or even get updates notification? Who would support the infrastructure to download the app? For 8$, i would simply bite the bullet. It's 27$CAD for a lifetime license damn it.

[–] NENathaniel 5 points 2 years ago

$27 feels pricey to me tho. 30% off of that would be very enticing but yea, idk how hard it is to implement these other payment options on the backend

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Could put it in F-Droid right?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago

If he decided to make Sync open source and remove ads then sure.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

No, Sync is not open source